ChessWorld - Preferences FAQ's

Select Join Games from the menubar** to view the options. The most suitable for newcomers are Suggest Opponent or Suggest Variety.

Suggest Opponent offers a suggested player and summary of their performance. Check the time limit and color you're playing. If you're playing White, you must make the first move!

Use the  Skip  button if the first opponent doesn’t appeal. Once satisfied, click  Choose this Opponent .

Suggest Variety shows 5 players with similar info. Consider your preferred time control (daily or relaxed pace). Use  Skip  to change players. The list may shrink with repeated use.

Guest Members may see fewer players if they are already playing games. Limits apply, except for special Guest Welcoming Tournaments.

When happy with your selection, click  Choose these players  at the top of the page.

** Some Join Games options are only for Full Members. The screen will notify you if access is restricted.

Making moves is easy:

1. Click the piece you want to move.
2. Click the destination square.
3. Click  Confirm  to complete the move.
4. If it was a mistake, click  Undo  (before confirming).

   By default, the Piece Movement Style is set to Classic Click and Click.
   You can change it to Drag and Drop via My Stuff → My Moves.

Just click the  Next  button to go to the next opponent's move.

Games waiting for your move are ordered from oldest to newest.

Click  Next  to go to the next one in the queue.

Want to skip it? Click  Skip  instead.

Full Members: Unlimited concurrent games, rated or unrated, unlimited Tournaments, and up to 10 Teams.

Guest Members: Subject to a limit, but the limit is extended for Guest Welcoming Tournaments. They cannot play in other tournament formats or join Teams unless part of a special promotion.

Full Members: Yes, always.

Guest Members: Only in Guest Welcoming Tournaments or when paired with a site Welcomer. Those games will be rated.

Whenever your opponent makes a move, we immediately email you the details.

Please ensure your email address is valid and up to date. You can manage this at My Stuff ... My Email. If your email is invalid or missing, you won’t receive notifications and will have to manually check your games on the site.

Note that sometimes your ISP may delay, block, or misroute emails — these are beyond our control. However, ChessWorld always sends move notification emails.

See the Email section in the General FAQ for more information.

If you're only playing one game and it's not your turn, the game board won’t be displayed when you log in.

To avoid this, consider playing several games at once. This way, the last board you played on will be shown, and any games waiting for your move will be displayed automatically.

You can still use the methods described in Q. I'm new here, so how can I start playing?, but another easy way is to go to the Join Games menu and select Join Games ... Search by Quick List.

This shows a list of available opponents, and you can choose based on rating, time limit, or even by country preference. The choice is yours!

Full Members: Yes. Go to Join Games ... Search by Details to refine your opponent preferences.

Guest Members: This feature is not available. However, you can still find suitable players using the suggestions shown in Join Games ... Search by Quick List.

Full Members: You can send individual invites via any 'Invitation' link on a player's homepage. If the recipient has disabled invites under My Stuff ... My Email, you'll see Invitation off and cannot send an invite.

Guest Members: You may only invite your Welcomer for further games.

All Members: You can send email invitations to friends, family, or colleagues using Join Games ... Invite your Friends, as long as they are not already registered on ChessWorld.

You can track your sent invitations at My Stuff ... My Invitations under the Outgoing tab.

Guest Members can join our special Guest Welcoming Tournaments via links on any play page.

We offer:

• 4-player All-play-All tournaments with 3-day time controls (6 games total)
• 10-player Invitation-based All-play-All tournaments with 7-day controls (18 games total)

The 4-player version starts immediately upon enrolment. The 10-player version may take longer to fill, and is generally offered to active Guest Members.

Tournament games are always rated and do not count against the normal concurrent game limit for Guest Members. This allows new players to enjoy tournaments and start building their chess rating.

To join an auto-enrol Welcoming Tournament, simply click the link on the Play page. You’ll be placed in the next available tournament with players close to your rating. The tournament usually starts within a few hours. If you’re playing as White, remember to make the first move!

If you’re invited to another Welcoming Tournament, click Accept to join or Decline if you don’t wish to participate.

If the tournament is already full, accepting will still add you to the internal waitlist, and you’ll be placed in the next available one — typically within 2 to 3 days.

Usually, Guest Members are invited to just one All-play-All Welcoming Tournament to sample the experience. These tournaments offer multiple rated games, which are typically only available to Full Members.

Occasionally, and at ChessWorld’s discretion, second-tier tournaments are offered to active and committed Guest Members. These are not scheduled in advance, and requesting access through Admin or HelpDesk may reduce your chance of being selected.

This applies to larger 10-player Welcoming Tournaments. We intentionally include more players to ensure that even if some drop out, there are still enough games and opponents for meaningful competition.

If all players participate, you’ll have 18 games (9 with White, 9 with Black). If some drop out, the total game load will be less.

Yes. In addition to the 10-player invitation format, we offer an auto-enrol 4-player format. If eligible, you’ll see a trophy icon in the Messages area of the Play page. These start as soon as 4 players join and are matched by rating.

Some Full Members also organize unofficial, smaller invitational tournaments for newcomers.

Yes! You can observe live games and learn how others handle positions by visiting the Community ... Members Playing Now page.

You can also browse these FAQ pages or explore the Site Features from the Help menu.

Your email is used to confirm your registration, notify you of moves made by opponents, and invite you to Welcoming Tournaments.

If you contact the HelpDesk, replies are posted on the forum and also emailed to you as a courtesy.

If you forget your password, it will be sent to your registered email. To request it, visit the login page, enter your Nickname or Email, and click Email My Password. The email is auto-generated and cannot be seen by others.

It depends. As outlined in the Member Assistance and Fair Play section, the use of chess engines is not permitted. However, like in traditional correspondence chess, the use of opening books and other textual references is allowed.

No, ChessWorld does not provide the facility to play such games.

However, it is possible that you will meet opponents from time to time who may well be on-line at the same time as yourself. In such cases, and subject to you both agreeing, it would be possible to play games quite quickly, even if you did not manage to finish them in one session.

A useful and interesting alternative if you want to play some rapid games at times is to take advantage of our Play like the Masters feature. This is available, via the Improve ... menu, for Full Members only. This feature allows you to select any one of the many thousands of games in our Masters Collection, and then take the part of one of the players. You can then try to emulate the play of the Master: when you make the correct move the screen responds with the next move of your virtual opponent and you can then attempt the next move.

It is possible to play these games as fast, or as slow, as you wish and they provide a unique opportunity whereby you will always find an opponent whenever you wish. This is the unique ChessWorld advantage over conventional Blitz games where you may have to wait for a period of time before you can even locate an opponent.

Usually, your Referrer is the person that you identified when you completed your original subscription details. However, if you did not specify a particular Member you will be allocated a Referrer from our pool of Members.

The importance of your Referrer is that, when, or if, you decide to become a Full Member, and pay the Full annual subscription yourself, they will be awarded two free months on their own subscription. We do this as an encouragement for our Full Members so that they are rewarded for either introducing you to the site, or for their various efforts in offering you advice and support.

Yes, you can. As long as you have not already made the decision to join us as a Full Member, we can change your current Referrer to any person that you wish to nominate.

If you wish to take advantage of this facility, and ensure that your Referrer gets due credit, please contact the HelpDesk with the name, and if possible, the UserID of the person you wish to nominate as your referrer.

Do not upgrade your Membership until you have checked on your homepage that the correct name for your Referrer is shown.

This video feature is provided from time to time as a service to new Members and will automatically disappear after several visits to the site. However, if you find it to be obtrusive you should visit the My Stuff ... My Moves page and change the current Preferred move score option from the current setting show a 'very' shorthand PGN ... to another choice.

We are sorry that you did not find something to interest you on ChessWorld, but we do understand that we may not offer the particular features or functions for which you are looking.

To leave us, all you need to do is visit the My Stuff ... My Email page, delete your Email address, replace it with an asterisk, (*), and then press the  Submit  button. After that we will not be able to contact you in future and your Account with us is effectively closed.

Welcome to the ChessWorld experience!

Joining us is easy – click on the link in the Unlock the secrets pop up box, or visit My Stuff ... My Subscription.

Whichever you choose you will be taken to our Subscription page where you will be given the relevant information on current subscriptions and methods of payment. If you have a credit card you may use either of our Agents, PayPal or RBS WorldPay, with absolute confidence. They handle all of the processing regarding your credit details and, after verifying your payment, inform us of the successful transaction. Your credit details are not passed to us at any time. We do urge you to keep a copy of any electronic receipt that our Agents may issue until such time as you have confirmed your Full Membership.

If you do not have a credit card you may pay us directly. The details, and the address to use, are given in our Top 10 FAQ’s – Q. Can I pay for my subscription without a credit card?

Please be assured that when you do pay your initial subscription, it is for one year only; we do not offer automatic renewals as we believe that you, and only you, can make that decision, without any undue pressure from us. However, about a month before your subscription runs out we will send you a reminder by email; if you have enjoyed your Full Member experience we hope that you will consider renewing your subscription!

Only you can decide, of course, but your answers to these questions may help your reach your decision.

- Do I want to play unlimited concurrent games?
- Do I want to play in unlimited Tournaments?
- Do I want to create my own Tournaments?
- Are there some Full Member only features that I want to use?

We hope that you will feel that it is worth joining us as a Full Member, but if you don't we are quite happy that you should continue using and enjoying ChessWorld as far as possible. You can always think about subscribing at a later time!